Criminal District Attorney for Comal County

A Criminal District Attorney is a
statutorily created office that is legally bound to not only handle all
criminal matters for the designated county but also all civil matters
related to representation of the county, county officials, and all
associated matters. The Texas Constitution provides for the office of County Attorney in each
county.

However, the legislature may abolish the office of County Attorney by establishing a
Criminal District Attorney for such a county.
This legislative change took place in Comal County in 1997.
Prior to this, Comal County had a County Attorney and a District
Attorney.

The statutory duties of a Criminal District Attorney include
the following:

Represent the State of Texas and victims of crimes in all criminal cases in the District Courts, County Courts-at-Law, and Justice Courts and in appeals therefrom.

Represent the best interests of our children in Child Protective Services cases.

Represent the victims of domestic abuse by obtaining protective orders against abusive family members.

Represent the State of Texas and victims of crimes in ensuring that justice is rendered for juveniles accused of criminal offenses.

Provide County Officials with written opinions or advice relating to the official duties of that official.

"The [prosecutor] is the representative not of an
ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern
impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose
interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case,
but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite
sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not
escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor –
indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at
liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper
methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every
legitimate means to bring about a just one."

Justice Sutherland in Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78 (1935)

Taking back the Roads:

Comal County Criminal District Attorney Jennifer Tharp
announces that effective Thursday, September 1, 2011, Comal
County and its law enforcement agencies have implemented a
24/7 “No Refusal” policy towards suspected DWI drivers.
WOAI Video and Report